There’s no shortage of violence in movies today. Whether it’s superheroes fighting each other, spies being betrayed by their superiors, sentient foods being eaten by people or even frustrated fowl, almost every movie has a little bit of violence. But when it comes to the movies of writer/director Shane Black, there’s probably a little more than usual. However, as a new video essay points out, there’s something special about how the director of The Nice Guys and the writer of Lethal Weapon uses violence in his films.

Watch the video essay on violence in Shane Black movies after the jump.

As Nerdwriter points out, violence in Shane Black’s movies isn’t just there for the sake of violence. Instead, it serves multiple purposes that help strengthen the narrative or develop the characters. This isn’t something that most Hollywood blockbusters do effectively as they often use violence as a way to create pure entertainment rather than enhancing the storytelling in a consequential way.

Shane Black’s approach to violence isn’t anything new since he uses film noir as inspiration for how to use violence effectively in his films. Violence in noir movies has a lasting impact and actually has an effect on our characters beyond a quick action sequence, and Shane Black has done that rather well in his relatively small filmography. He doesn’t do it quite as well in Iron Man 3, but you can still feel that trademark in there in some scenes. It’ll be interesting to see how Shane Black applies his approach to violence in The Predator, coming February 9, 2018.